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ISLAMABAD: The premature inauguration of the 1,410MW Tarbela Dam 4th extension hydro-power project (c) in March by the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) has culminated in operational losses of more than Rs25 billion over the three-month annual flood season, Wapda sources and officials at the Ministry of Water Resources said.

Apparently, acting under political pressure, Wapda inaugurated the $850 million Tarbela-IV project in March, despite warnings from the German engineering consultant, Voith, not to operate the turbine of the fourth tunnel at Tarbela Dam while its reservoir was at the dead level.

Should not fault Immy for this !

However, the Wapda went ahead and and ran the turbine for several hours during the inauguration of the project by the-then prime minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. As a result, mud and slurry from the practically empty reservoir filled part of the tunnel, rendering three turbines inoperable.

So, the news was suppressed until now

The Wapda sources said that the draft tube connecting the turbine to the tail race channel is buried under tons of mud. All subsequent efforts by government agencies, including the Pakistan Navy, to remove the debris have failed and the three units of 1,410 MW capacity have been offline since July, during the annual filling of the Tarbela reservoir.

Seems like the job is for a " foreign expert". Indian experts need not apply

According to the sources, the power not generated resulted in lost revenue of Rs280 million a day, or Rs25.2 billion for the 90-day flood season. To date, the government is yet to order an inquiry into the Tarbela-IV debacle. However, the Ministry of Water Resources is now considering to constitute an investigation committee to ascertain responsibility, a spokesman told The News.

The Kaptaan will of course deny responsibility for this negligence . This was "before NAYA PAKISTAN"

Since the Tarbela Dam reservoir was at the dead storage level in March, the only little water available for use during the inauguration ceremony was located in the flushing inlet and full of silt. “The result is before us now -- a daily loss of Rs280 million,” the source said.

Multiply this kind of sheer negligence by a hundred similar cases and you see why Pakiland is in a financial shit hole

The sources said that the scale of the repair work on Tarbela-IV was so great that the entire current flood season has been lost. Wapda would need to construct a temporary downstream coffer dam and then drain the area between the draft tube and coffer dam so that cranes and earth moving equipment could remove tons of debris and reach the embedded draft tubes. If the draft tubes are found damaged, as is apprehended, further costs would be incurred, the sources said.

By adopting the best engineering practices and undertaking heroic efforts, Wapda engineers, consultants and contractors managed to clear the gate of Unit 16 by Tuesday evening. Ongoing work on the other gates would likely take another 48 to 72 hours. This would lead to commencement of power generation from Tarbela-IV.

Guess no one had the guts to tell the then Paki PM that it was a premature inauguration . He had his five minutes of "glory" and the results are there for all to see

Exclusive: #PrimeMinister @ImranKhanPTI chairs meeting on #FATF and voices his concerns as to why decision on proscribed organizations including Haqqani network is not implemented. Interesting, #NawazSharif used to say the same.9 replies 66 retweets 161 likes

For nearly 15 years, Washington showered aid dollars and praise on Islamabad to encourage it to abandon support for hard-line Islamist militant groups in general and the Afghan Taliban in particular.

But a tough approach involving ceasing aid to Pakistan and publicly questioning its counterterror efforts is making little headway in changing Islamabad’s approach to its quarter-century of support for Afghan insurgents.

As a new Pakistani civilian administration settles in, Islamabad is unlikely to change course on the Afghan Taliban despite Washington’s visible efforts to prompt a change of perspective in Islamabad by denying aid and publicly urging it to move against militants.

With U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and General Joseph Dunford, the top U.S. military officer, scheduled to visit Islamabad on September 5, the two countries still seem miles apart.

Ayaz Wazir, a former Pakistani diplomat, says relations between Washington and Islamabad are overshadowed by the issue of how to deal with militants operating out of Pakistan, particularly those active in Afghanistan.

“Afghanistan played a major role in worsening our relations with Washington, and it will continue to do so if we fail to address their [U.S.] concerns,” he told Pakistan’s private Capital TV. “I think we should stop looking at who is accusing us of harboring militants, but if there are militants here we should do something about them.”

Ahead of Pompeo’s visit, the U.S. military canceled $300 million in aid to Pakistan because of a perceived lack of action against militants. This year, Washington has revoked nearly $800 million in payments to Islamabad from the so-called Coalition Support Funds (CSF).

Washington has also pushed for Pakistan’s inclusion on a global money-laundering watchdog list and taken other steps to push Islamabad to ramp up its counterterrorism efforts after U.S. President Donald Trump accused Islamabad of harboring the terrorists his country’s forces are fighting in Afghanistan.

“We have made decisions on curbing assistance and putting constraints on our relationship with Pakistan as a means to try to persuade them to adopt that course and use their influence on the Taliban,” Randall G. Schriver, assistant U.S. secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, told a think tank audience in Washington on August 29.

Efforts to involve Islamabad in helping Kabul reach a peace settlement with the Talban suffered a major blow after Afghan and U.S. officials pointed fingers at Pakistan following a botched Taliban attempt to overrun the strategic southeastern Afghan city of Ghazni last month.

“The Taliban enjoy freedom of action there [in Pakistan]; they occasionally come from there, and casualties are taken back there. These are things we are concerned about,” General John Nicholson, commander of the NATO-led Resolute Support mission, told journalists on August 23.

In Islamabad’s corridors of power, however, everything still seems to be up for discussion.

“We will try to inform them [U.S. officials] of the performance and progress Pakistan has made by incurring financial losses and casualties,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told BBC’s Urdu service. “We think that this contact will provide us an opportunity to understand each other.”

For years, Islamabad has urged Washington and its NATO allies to compare their combined casualties to its losses in the war against terrorism while urging against scapegoating Pakistan for their failures in Afghanistan.

While Pakistan might have lost more soldiers since 2004, nothing explains its longstanding relations with Taliban leaders, most of whom continue to shelter on Pakistani soil.

In March 2016, Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan's adviser for foreign affairs, acknowledged that Islamabad has “some influence over them [Taliban] because their leadership is in Pakistan and they get some medical facilities. Their families are here."

Two months later, a U.S. drone strike killed Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansur in the southwestern province of Balochistan. He was apparently targeted as he returned to his Pakistani hideout after visiting Iran in May 2016.

Sherry Rehman, a former Pakistani envoy in Washington, however, argues that Pakistan can still leverage Washington’s dependence on Pakistani routes for to supplying its forces in Afghanistan.

“They do not have a northern [supply] route to [U.S. forces in] Afghanistan,” she told Pakistan’s Geo TV. “They need us for evacuation or whatever presence they want to keep in Afghanistan. They still need GLOCs [ground lines of communications]. The political settlement they are seeking in Afghanistan cannot be achieved without us [Pakistan].”

In Washington, few seem ready to listen to such arguments since Trump accused Islamabad of giving “safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan” in January.

The "United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools," he wrote on Twitter.

Assistant U.S. Secretary of Defense Randall Shriver said Washington would like Islamabad to help bring the Afghan Taliban to the negotiating table so that they can negotiate a peace deal with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s national unity government.

“Our approach of cutting assistance and pressuring Pakistan on their relationship with the Taliban will be sustained,” he said.

-USA still needs Pakistan , which controls the entry and exit gate to Afghanistan. Pakistan "knows" that the US is being bled financially in Afghanistan -Pakistan will do everything it can to ensure that (what it calls ) a pro India regime does not rule Afghanistan . Installation of a Taliban lite Govt would ensue that.-Pakistan will never give land access via Wagah to India for trade -Therefore Pakistan will likely defy US Pressure while claiming that it has done enough !

Forget about brits forcing India to accept aid. Here's a new one the britshits are dishing out to their favorites - the pakis:

Now we send extra £105 million foreign aid to Pakistan: Country is biggest recipient of handouts despite having its own space programme

The Asian country is now the biggest recipient of UK handouts, figures show

Probe found that £300million of British taxpayers’ money is being handed out

The aid comes despite Pakistan spending £19 million on its space programme

The Asian country is now the biggest recipient of UK handouts despite preparing to splash out billions on arms including a new fleet of submarines.

It comes after the Mail yesterday revealed how £300million of British taxpayers’ money is being handed out to Pakistanis on pre-loaded cash cards

Figures from Britain’s overseas aid department, the Department for International Development, show total spending on Pakistan will soar by more than 30 per cent this year.

Yet Islamabad has unveiled a massive military spending plan, pumping £654million into the defence budget this year – an 11 per cent boost to £6.7billion.

The figures do not include money spent on its atomic weapons programme. The country is one of a small number of nuclear powers, and has between 110 and 130 warheads.

Last year Pakistan announced it would buy eight new submarines at a cost of around £4billion, with the country expected to lavish more than £10billion on new weapons by 2024.

Its space programme has successfully launched a satellite and has an annual budget of around £19.5million.

But an investigation found Pakistani families withdrawing money with cashpoint cards they obtained by paying kickbacks to officials.

A Dfid spokesman added: ‘Our investment in Pakistan is making the world a safer place by tackling poverty, improving governance and disrupting serious crime, which left unchallenged breeds violent extremism and drives mass migration.’

ISLAMABAD – The transgender model who was alleged to have sexual relations with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman, Imran Khan has finally quashed such allegations.In a message released recently, Ramal Ali, whose name was quoted in the memoir of Imran Khan’s former wife, Reham Khan, has expressed that she was saddened at such accusations which were far from reality.‘Keep me out of your political debate as the allegations have hurt me and my family,’ said Ramal.

The transgender continued that one needs to cross-check such FAKE news before making it public, saying she was unaware of the publication of such scandal involving the Prime Minister-in-waiting, Imran Khan, in any book.

She should employ a "good" lawyer and sue Reham !

Ali pleaded that she toiled hard for achieving success in the media industry and to earn respect which ‘I need to keep intact’. Ramal Ali was quoted through a journalist in the sensational book released by Reham Khan.

Explaining the hidden facts in the book, which are still unsubstantiated, the ex-wife of Khan wrote, “… a rather excited female journalist would one day try very hard to reach me. I was busy in a meeting at the time but eventually managed to squeeze a few minutes out for the urgent information that she had to share. This rather journalist told me that the film actress Resham had just called her and told her how the new transgender dancer Rimal provided services to the great Khan. My lack of surprise shocked the journalist relaying the story”.

If this was an "isolated" revelation one could give the benefit of the doubt to Imran. There are just too many such "whisperings" around the private life of The Kaptaan . And yet, he was able to obtain the Certificate Of Sadiq and Ameen , which allowed him to become PM of Pakiland

Relevant excerpt from Reham Khan's book regard alleged dalliance of present Prime Minister of the Mohammadden Terrorism Fomenting Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Imran Khan Niazi, with a transgender named Ramal, Rimal in her book:

Over a year later, a rather excited female journalist would one day try very hard to reach me. I was busy in a meeting at the time but eventually managed to squeeze a few minutes out for the urgent information that she had to share. This rather breathless journalist told me that the film actress Resham had just called her and told her how the new transgender dancer Rimal was over the moon because she had just provided her services to the great Khan. My lack of surprise shocked the journalist relaying the story. She proceeded to swear at me in Sindhi, saying, “Zaleel aurat ! I can’t believe what an idiotic woman you are! You knew all this?”

After going by the following excerpt from Reham Khans book, Imran Khan Niazi's alleged sexual fondness for transgenders does not come as a surprise:

The long-term, live-in relationship with Moby was odd too. Imran would refer to him as his wife. Moby, while married for a third time, chose to live with Imran and not his own wife. I found these connections hard to understand but chose to dismiss them, deeming it paranoia. However, while cleaning the bottomleft drawer of my husband’s side table, I found empty cigar cases and huge tubes of KY jelly. When I asked what they were for, Imran explained that the lubricant and the metal cases were used together. His ‘preferences’ became clear. My look of horror produced peals of laughter from my sexually liberated husband.

I had caught my husband ‘admiring’ male genitalia through his impressive DVD collection several times. It was embarrassing to walk into the bedroom of a husband who was pleasuring himself to images of male bodies while his wife was busy cooking in the kitchen.

The Uniformed Jihadi's of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan's Punjabi Dominated Military seem to have enough dirt on Imran Khan Niazi to keep him nice and pliant as the Uniformed Jihadis can have their B Team in the Judiciary led by the Suo Moto Chief Joker of Pakistan can impeach PM Niazi for not being sadiq and ameen before one can say Tyrian White

American blood .Let the US ask India to send a couple of battalions to Afghanistan

Now if India did agree to send a couple of combat battalions to Afg... how will they get there? Will the Pakis give overflight rights to an IAF aircraft carrying soldiers to Afg? Will we overfly Iran to support the US effort? Will we suck it up and go the long route over China and the stans?

Fatah uses the term "I'm the Dim" in this video. A term that was coined and first used here on this forum, which is a matter of pride for us. If you are reading this Mr. Fatah, please note that I'm the Dim evolved from Immy the Dimmy, a term reused by Salman Rushdie when he described what people in England thought of the dimwit. There is a YouTube video on this. When I met Salman here in NY, I asked him about it. He laughed and promptly changed the topic.

The Shaitan/Ogre is in the details.. 45% for Sindh and Baluchistan.. while 3% for Punjab and KP

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday gave a go-ahead for increasing natural gas rates by an average of 46 per cent as determined by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) in June and ordered steps to control annual gas theft of Rs50 billion.

According to Ogra, the SSGC that serves Sindh and Balochistan will need Rs167 billion during the next financial year to fund its ongoing programmes.

Therefore, it has approved 45.54pc (Rs184.34 per unit) increase in the average prescribed price from its existing rate of Rs404.75 to Rs589.09 per unit.

Likewise, the regulator approved the 2018-19 revenue requirement for SNGP, which serves Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, at Rs287bn, necessitating an average prescribed price of Rs629.33 per MBTU, up 3.37pc (Rs20.57 per unit) from its existing price of Rs608.76 per unit.

It is time to split Bakistan. Bakistan is not containing the terrorists and even US has to cut off military aid to Bakistan.

Baluchistan and Sindh need to be separate countries. Afghanistan can get access to the sea via Baluchistan. This will provide Baluchistan much needed revenue. Sindh has enough resources to become self sustaining and can help Baluchistan. The latest Bakistani ploy of making Baluchistan and Sindh pay for the energy which Bakjab uses it bad enough.

As part of the split, PAF should be made to give up its F-16s to Sindh and Baluchistan and itself starved of spares. A no-fly zone for PAF but safe for all other commercial and military aircraft implemented over Baluchistan & Sindh will be a start.

anupmisra wrote:Fatah uses the term "I'm the Dim" in this video. A term that was coined and first used here on this forum, which is a matter of pride for us. If you are reading this Mr. Fatah, please note that I'm the Dim evolved from Immy the Dimmy, a term reused by Salman Rushdie when he described what people in England thought of the dimwit. There is a YouTube video on this. When I met Salman here in NY, I asked him about it. He laughed and promptly changed the topic.

Welcome to this forum even if you only lurk here.

anupmisra Ji :

The appellation "I'm the Dim" was conferred on him during his Oxfart days when he graduated, I believe, with a "Dishonourable Turd"

disha wrote:It is time to split Bakistan. Bakistan is not containing the terrorists and even US has to cut off military aid to Bakistan.

Baluchistan and Sindh need to be separate countries. Afghanistan can get access to the sea via Baluchistan. This will provide Baluchistan much needed revenue. Sindh has enough resources to become self sustaining and can help Baluchistan. The latest Bakistani ploy of making Baluchistan and Sindh pay for the energy which Bakjab uses it bad enough.

As part of the split, PAF should be made to give up its F-16s to Sindh and Baluchistan and itself starved of spares. A no-fly zone for PAF but safe for all other commercial and military aircraft implemented over Baluchistan & Sindh will be a start.

Sir you forgot the most imp thing of pakistan...aatom bomb? where should they be given to? House of Saud or Xin or an amazon prime/e-bay auction??

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Wednesday held the opening round of talks between the two countries at the Foreign Office in Islamabad, where the two delegations discussed "bilateral, regional and international issues".

US military chief Gen Joseph Dunford also accompanied Pompeo on his short visit to Pakistan, where further meetings with Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa are expected.

According to the Foreign Office, "discussions on bilateral, regional and international issues" took place in the meeting that lasted for about 40 minutes

Pompeo and company, following their meeting with the foreign ministry officials, left for the Prime Minister House, where the met Pakistani premier Imran Khan.Earlier, Pompeo, who landed at the Nur Khan Airbase in Islamabad just before 1pm, was received by foreign ministry's Director General (Americas) Dr Zafar Iqbal and American diplomats.He headed for the US embassy in a motorcade of about 20 white Toyota Land Cruisers and a police escort.

Earlier, while talking to media representatives on board his Pakistan-bound flight, Pompeo had said he was visiting Pakistan to reset bilateral relations.

“We have worked closely with the Pakistanis in my role as CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] director. Our teams have been working together for a long time. There are lots of challenges between our two nations for sure, but we’re hopeful that with the new leadership, we can find common ground and begin to work on some of our shared problems together,” he added.Pompeo said the new Pakistani government has expressed good-faith intention to improve bilateral ties.

He said he was going to Islamabad with the US military chief Gen Joseph Dunford to have discussions with Pakistani authorities. “We’ll also meet with General Bajwa, who we both know, who I’ve met with a number of times, as well as my counterpart, Foreign Minister [Shah Mehmood] Qureshi,” he said.

A journalist reminded the Secretary of State that his trip comes right after the announcement that the US was cutting $300 million in military aid to Pakistan. “What do you think of that as a start-off point for this new relationship that you’re trying to build?” Pompeo was asked.“Look, this wasn’t news to the Pakistanis. It made a lot of headlines over the last few days ... but they were told this past summer that they weren’t likely to get that money,” Pompeo recalled.

“And the rationale for them not getting the money is very clear. It’s that we haven’t seen the progress that we need to see from them.”

Master- Servant relationship

The secretary noted that most of the developments affecting Pak-US relations took place long before Khan was in power. “I’m hoping we can turn the page and begin to make progress. But there are real expectations,” he said. “We need Pakistan to seriously engage to help us get to the reconciliation we need in Afghanistan.” Pompeo pointed out that both the outgoing and incoming commanders of US forces in Afghanistan had said that this was not possible without Pakistan’s assistance.

Apart from the "mischief" they create in Afghanistan, they also control the entry and exit gate to Afghanistan !

He acknowledged that Pakistan too had important interests, including security interests, in Afghanistan to “make sure they get the issues at their border right, and we need their help”.

Responding to another question about whether he will raise the issue of Dr Shakeel Afridi during his trip to Pakistan, Pompeo said: "I have a long history of raising the case of Dr Afridi as the CIA director. I’ll leave it at that."

NEW DELHI: US secretary of state arrived in Wednesday afternoon in an attempt to "reset" the frigid ties with a once firm ally, Pakistan, reported the country's media.

The US is hoping for change with a new leader in Pakistan, Prime Minister , who though virulently anti-US in the past has shown restraint in his comments after he became PM.

"First stop Pakistan; a new leader there. I wanted to get out there at the beginning of his [Imran Khan's] time in an effort to reset the relationship between the two countries," said Pompeo earlier, to media representatives travelling with him to Pakistan, according to newspaper Dawn.

The erstwhile firm allies' relationship has hit rock bottom over the last couple of years with the US extremely annoyed that Pakistan isn't taking decisive action against terror aimed at Afghanistan and India from its soil. And, if such a thing is possible, ties crashed even lower right at the start of 2018, no thanks to a blistering New Year's Day Twitter tirade by US President Donald Trump, who accused Pakistan of "lies and deceit".

Along with that Trump attack, Washington in January axed $500 million in to Pakistan. To make matters worse, the US twisted the knife in with another $300 million cut last week, mere days ahead of Pompeo's visit. The reason? Pakistan is still not doing enough to stomp out terrorism.

To say that US-Pakistan ties need a "reset" therefore is at best an understatement. But that's what both sides are hoping for, especially now, with new Prime Minister Khan. Pompeo's is the first official US visit with the new PM.

In his chat with the media en route to Pakistan, Pompeo did note that most of the developments that negatively affected Pakistan-US relations took place long before Khan was in power. He added that in his recent telephone call with Khan they agreed that peace in Afghanistan was a "shared goal."

"We have worked closely with the Pakistanis in my role as CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] director. Our teams have been working together for a long time. There are lots of challenges between our two nations for sure, but we're hopeful that with the new leadership, we can find common ground and begin to work on some of our shared problems together," said the US secretary of state.

Aid cut to hit ties further?

When asked whether last week's $300 million aid cut was considered a good starting point for the "reset" of ties, Pompeo said the very reason for his trip was to clearly communicate with Pakistan what US expectations are, what Pakistan could do for it and vice versa, to avoid further aid cuts.

"(We want to) see if we can't find a path forward together...I'm hoping we can turn the page and begin to make progress. But there are real expectations," he said, adding that Pakistan needs to seriously engage to help the US get to the reconciliation needed in Pakistan's neighbour, war-torn Afghanistan.

Of course, Pompeo's agenda also includes a pow wow with the chief of Pakistan's all-powerful army; many say Khan is a military stooge. The US official is accompanied by the US military chief General Joseph Dunford.

"We'll also meet with (Pakistan's army chief) General (Qamar) Bajwa, who we both know, who I've met with a number of times, as well as my counterpart, Foreign Minister [Shah Mehmood] Qureshi," said Pompeo.

Pompeo noted that both the outgoing and incoming commanders of US forces in Afghanistan have said that reconciliation there was not possible without Pakistan's assistance, and that includes the Pakistani army's help.

"So, we'll have three opportunities to walk through the complexity that is this relationship and hopefully begin to make some progress so that we can get back to a set of common understandings," said Pompeo, the third opportunity he referred being a meeting with PM Khan.

The British High Commissioner to Pakistan Thomas Drew has said the United Kingdom is ready to help Pakistan come out of the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international body that seeks to curb terror financing.

“In my first meeting with the new government, I offered technical help to make sure it does not stay too long in grey list,” Drew said in a lecture on ‘Pakistan-UK relations in view of post Brexit foreign policy’ held at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) on Tuesday

“Pakistan has done very well during the last five months on the issue of FATF. (BullShit, there was an interim report by the FATF committee which was not at all satified by the cosmetic and half measures proposed by pakistan) We are investing to help Pakistan to meet criteria of FATF,” he added.

The envoy said the UK would also consider any request of the Pakistani government for repatriation of former finance minister Ishaq Dar, and Hassan and Hussain – sons of former premier Nawaz Sharif, who is currently serving a jail term after failing to provide sources for acquiring family’s London properties.

“In case of any request we would simply follow court ruling, nothing for me, nothing for the government. We would consider request on merit,” Drew said in a reply to question.

The UK high commissioner said the UK’s relationship with Pakistan is focused to unleash its potential in diverse areas including economic growth, education, and water preservation.

Talking about the Pakistan-UK ties in post Brexit world, Drew said the UK shares a vision of a peaceful and prosperous Pakistan with major focus on collaboration in economy and education.

“Our interests will continue to remain tied-up with Pakistan’s long-term stability and security. It is in the interest of Pakistan, India and the world to resolve all its outstanding issues including Jammu and Kashmir,” he said. (Need for the UK envoy in Delhi to be summoned by our foreign office and remind them to resolve all its outstanding issues including Northern Ireland)

Drew said the UK’s diplomatic mission in Pakistan is the second largest in the world. “More than two per cent population of the UK relates to Pakistan in terms of origin and is significantly contributing to social and economic fabric of the UK,” he added.(Yes Pakis are contributing significantly to UK - Sex grooming gangs and no-go areas being enforced by pakis in UKistan )

Drew agreed to the fact that international media’s coverage about Pakistan’s is not always fair. “CPEC [China-Pakistan Economic Corridor] has an immense economic potential not only for Pakistan but for the region,” the British HC added.

The Pakistani rupee is under pressure, having depreciated 15 per cent against the dollar over the last seven months. Pakistan’s net international reserves are negative now while the country continues to run a very high current account deficit of over five per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The demand for dollars for imports, loan repayments and speculative capital flight continues to far exceed the country’s capacity to earn dollars through exports and remittances.

It is expected that Pakistan will have to seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) ­— yet again. The last time this happened was in July 2013, when then finance minister Ishaq Dar defended the IMF plan with the promise that “a better tomorrow dawns only when requisite pains are borne today”. Unfortunately, it looks like Pakistan must suffer a bit more before any new dawn breaks.

Why is Pakistan back in trouble with balance of payment? The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) government received a big break early in its tenure when the price of oil fell from around 100 US dollars a barrel to less than half that amount. Since almost a third of Pakistan’s imports are based on oil, the decline in oil prices provided the government some significant breathing room to plan for the future and put its financial house in order. Unfortunately, the opportunity was squandered as the PMLN government failed to take the steps necessary to put Pakistan’s balance of payment position in order.

There were three basic issues that needed to be addressed. First, the government should have taken advantage of low oil prices by building up foreign currency reserves to offset the impact of future increase in oil prices. A good example to follow is that of Chile, a country that actively saves foreign currency when copper prices (its main export) rise. Since this was not done, the subsequent rise in oil prices since July of last year has put predictable pressure on Pakistan’s balance of payment.

Second, Pakistan faces the chronic problem of a poorly regulated financial system that facilitates tax evasion and helps launder money out of Pakistan. This lack of financial supervision by the government creates the twin problem of fiscal and current account deficits that are directly responsible for the balance of payment crisis. Unfortunately, the previous government made little to no headway in improving its ability to monitor the financial system.

Third, and most importantly, Pakistan’s anemic performance in the export sector is directly responsible for its perpetual balance of payment concerns. For example, since 1980, exports from India and Bangladesh have grown at a rate that is more than five times that of the growth of Pakistan’s exports. Unfortunately, the PMLN government failed to make any improvement in export performance. In fact, Pakistan’s total exports actually decreased in real terms during the PMLN tenure.

One reason for Pakistan’s poor export performance was Dar’s strange infatuation with keeping the rupee at or below the rate of 100 per US dollar — something he openly acknowledged in December 2013. The rupee exchange rate, like any other price in the economy, is ultimately a function of demand and supply. Dar’s insistence on keeping an overvalued exchange rate disproportionately hurt exports.

To make matters worse, the government engaged in an import-led growth strategy by borrowing from abroad to finance large-scale infrastructure projects — the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) being the most prominent example. It is well known that high net borrowing from abroad leads to real exchange rate appreciation which further restricts export growth. All of these elements have combined to generate the current balance of payment crisis. The new government that comes to power must address these issues in order to address the problem of rapid depreciation of the rupee.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Concerned about Pakistan’s international isolation and faltering economy, the country’s powerful military has quietly reached out to its archrival India about resuming peace talks, but the response was tepid, according to Western diplomats and a senior Pakistani official.The outreach, initiated by the army’s top commander, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, began months before Pakistan’s national elections. Pakistan offered to resume on-and-off talks with India over their border dispute in the Kashmir region, which stalled in 2015 as violence flared up there.

A key objective for Pakistan in reaching out to India is to open barriers to trade between the countries, ( India is still "waiting" for MFN status !) which would give Pakistan more access to regional markets. Any eventual peace talks over Kashmir are likely to involve an increase in bilateral trade as a confidence-building measure.

Increasingly, Pakistan’s military sees the country’s battered economy as a security threat, because it aggravates the insurgencies that plague the country. Pakistan is expected to ask the International Monetary Fund for $9 billion in the coming weeks, after receiving several billions of dollars in loans from China this year to pay its bills.

General Bajwa linked Pakistan’s economy to the region’s security in a hallmark speech last October, and the idea that the two are inseparable has since become known as the Bajwa doctrine. The army chief is also seen as more moderate than his predecessors were on India, which has been Pakistan’s bitter rival since the bloody partition that came with independence in 1947.

The Pakistani general and his Indian counterpart, Gen. Bipin Rawat, served together in a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo about a decade ago and get along well, diplomats say. This year, General Bajwa said the only way to solve the two countries’ conflict was through dialogue, a rare statement from the military. Diplomats say General Bajwa has tried to reach out to General Rawat to initiate talks. But the effort has been stymied by what one diplomat called a “system mismatch.”

ArjunPandit wrote:Sir you forgot the most imp thing of pakistan...aatom bomb? where should they be given to? House of Saud or Xin or an amazon prime/e-bay auction??

Well I cannot recommend how Haseena Atum Bum can be shared. On the physics package part, they just do not have any. It is all Cheeni maal which Chin will take back at the earliest, lest it finds its way into Xinjiang.

Why is the President of a Jewish group defending Pakistan?Sept 4, 2018Economic Times

Pakistan’s star continues to dim in Washington as a country that breeds terrorists and nukes with equal opportunity.It has no real well-wishers left in the US Congress or the Pentagon, and these days even the State Department struggles mightily to whitewash its crimes.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to deliver a tough message to Pakistan during his brief stopover today before arriving in India later in the day. As a former CIA director, he probably knows the ground realities better than his predecessors. Let’s hope he has other tricks up his sleeve besides a good chiding.

Till date, nothing controversial about the meetings has emerged !

But the resourceful Pakistanis have found themselves a most curious defender of their cause – Jack Rosen, president of the Jewish American Congress (JAC). JAC is a semi-important group in the umbrella of US Jewish organisations and Rosen pretty much runs it as a family enterprise.Rosen counts the last three US presidents among his friends — George W Bush apparently used to call him ‘Rosie’, Barack Obama played with his grandchildren for 20 minutes at a dinner in his New York apartment,

So, what is he doing publicly defending Pakistan and ignoring the pile of evidence that his own government has amassed over the years? Is he using his position as president of a oncestoried organisation to be a player?Rosen recently called the Trump administration’s policy toward Pakistan “patently absurd” in an article (‘Pakistan Deserves US Support,’ goo.gl/mW1bmM) in International Policy Digest, a foreign policy website out of Seoul.

He faithfully produces Pakistan’s litany of grievances against the US: how it’s been abandoned despite losing over 60,000 people ( the figure is much much higher according to Imran Khan ! in the war against terrorism, incurring $120 billion in economic costs, how it helped dismantle al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS) networks, and on and on.

There is little suspense where Rosen’s information came from. He cites a dinner with Pakistan’s ambassador to the US Ali Jehangir Siddiqui in July, where the servings were clearly selective dipped in a sea of gravy. Showering encomiums on Siddiqui, Rosen takes President Donald Trump to task for dedicating his first tweet of 2018 to Pakistan giving “safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan”. He laments the Pakistani people “must feel abandoned, their sacrifices in vain”.

But then, Rosen’s shocking naivete is not new. Way back in 2005, he was promoting General Pervez Musharraf as a man of peace and calling the dictator’s meeting with Jewish leaders a “historic moment”.No one else in the audience seems to have been fooled but Rosen.In a video clip from the past that recently became public, an American who appears to be Rosen is heard asking Musharraf what the US should do to “protect Americans from terrorism, radical Islam”.

A Pakistani Jew is being refused a visit to Israel on his Paki Passport. Mr Rosen should reach out to him and help him visit the Jewish holy sites In Israel. This will show his commitment to Pakistan !

Yigal Carmon, president of the Middle East Media Research Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit that monitors the press, and Tufail Ahmad, senior fellow, recently wrote in World Israel News (‘American Jewish Group Lobbies for Pakistan’s Anti-Semitic, Pro-Jihad PM’, goo.gl/CASyxc) that Rosen using his organisation as a “cover” to lobby was “wrong and damaging” to the Jewish community.

Pakistan will try any and every means necessary to make its case, given the dismal state of US-Pakistan relations and the loss of free money. Those buying the sob story, must remember the cardinal principle: caveat emptor.

CorporateAmbassador Monitoring Report: More Qadiyanis serve in the Israeli Armed Forces than Pakistan according to a book “Israel: A Profile”, by a renowned Jewish Professor, I.T Naomi. He stated: “600 Ahmadi sect people from Pakistan are working in Israeli army. About 300 are young Pakistani Qadiyani girls and 300 are men, serving in the Israeli army. To many analysts, Qadiaynis are a political issue and have always been a security threat for Pakistan. In India, Qadiyanis have collected and donated thousands to the Indian Army fund after Kargil.

On 15th February 1987, Pakistani Foreign Minister Sahibzada Yakub Khan declared in the National Assembly that there were 328 Qadiyani officers of different ranks in the Pakistan Armed Forces. According to his report 1, Lt. General, 5 Brigadiers in the army and 1 similar rank in the Air Force = 6, Colonial 10 Army, 2 Navy, 3 Air Force= 15, Lt. Colonials 56 Army, 6 Navy, 11 Air Force = 73, Major 135 Army, 5 Navy, 16 Air Force = 156, Captain 58 Army, 5 Navy, 14 Air Force = 77, Total 328.

Tariq Aziz reportedly Qadiyani relative of Rehman Malik and former president Musharaf’s National Security Advisor, has been hired for the “track two diplomacy with India”. His rank and salary was equivalent to a federal minister.

It was common knowledge that Jalaluddin Qamar, the Ahmedyah Missionary of Rabwah had been serving in Israel since 1956 when Ch. Muhammad Sharif was called back to Pakistan from Israel. All Qadiyani missionaries who had been formerly posted in Israel since 1928 namely J.D Shams, Allah Dita Jalundhari, Rashid Ahmed Chaughtai, Noor Ahmad and Ch. Sharif lived in Rabwah after serving in Israel. Their families had mysterious contact channels when they were in Israel, wrote Bashir Ahmad in “Ahmadiyah Movement: British Jewish Connection”.

As far as Jewish help and support is concerned, Mirza Mubarak Ahmad, grandson of the Qadiyani prophet has himself acknowledged in his book “OUR FOREIGN MISSIONS”

The 25-year-old suspect took the victim to a graveyard on gunpoint where he raped her. The man is said to be ‘influential’. Police initially refused to file an FIR of the incident. It is said police were ‘pressurised’ into doing so.A complaint of the incident was finally registered after locals reached the pertinent police station and prevailed on police three days after the incident transpired. The suspect is absconding.

Near by tribal areas are safe havens !

The family of the victim, a grade seven student, claimed the suspect had been threatening them of dire consequences. Locals said police were not cooperating earlier because the victim hailed from an unprivileged background.

ISLAMABAD: US Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo has urged Pakistan to take sustained and decisive measures against terrorists and militants threatening regional peace and stability.According to a statement issued by the State Department on Wednesday, Secretary Pompeo met with Prime Minister Imran Khan and other civilian, and military leadership in Islamabad on Wednesday. He was accompanied by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, Jr. Congratulating the Prime Minister on the formation of his government, the Secretary welcomed the further strengthening of civilian institutions.

While meeting with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Secretary Pompeo discussed the potential for the United States and Pakistan to work together to advance joint priorities, including regional peace and stability. He also emphasized the value of strong people-to-people ties between "our nations, built on decades of cultural and educational exchanges." During his meeting with Pakistani Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Bajwa, Secretary Pompeo welcomed the smooth transition of power to a new civilian government, stressing the importance of strong democratic institutions.

In all of his meetings, Secretary Pompeo emphasized the important role Pakistan could play in bringing about a negotiated peace in Afghanistan, and conveyed the need for Pakistan to take sustained and decisive measures against terrorists and militants threatening regional peace and stability.

Most likely some sort of financial relief for Pakistan has been agreed upon in those meetings . Maybe, help in IMF loans or even some release of the $ 300 million earlier earlier put on hold

Prime Minister Imran Khan's recent sanctioning of the petroleum division's request to hike gas tariff by an average of 46 per cent has drawn mixed response from economy and industry experts, with some questioning the timing and the potential impact of the move and others claiming that the hike was long overdue.

On Tuesday, PM Khan, in what was the first major policy decision of his young rein, gave his go-ahead to the tariff increase, of which domestic consumers would have to bear the heaviest brunt.

Once the new tariff goes into effect, the price for domestic consumption will be increased by an eye-watering 186 per cent, whereas commercial consumers will also have to pay 26 per cent more for the utility.

Pak foreign minister's press conference is more of a waffle now. Basic takeaway from his presser: 1) Americans asked for more cooperation in bringing Taliban for talks and direct negotiations. 2) Pakistan asked Americans to help ease tensions with India, the Line of Control.3 replies 20 retweets 39 likes

Why Pakistan should not celebrate Defence Day: The story of a journalist in exile who took on the military Taha Siddiqui- Firstpost Sep 05, 2018

Paris: Almost a year ago, I was sitting in my Islamabad news bureau, working on some stories while monitoring local Pakistani news on television when my attention was drawn to a promotional video on one of the channels. The video — produced by the Pakistan Army's media wing, the ISPR (Inter-Services Public Relations) — was being broadcast in connection to the upcoming Defence Day (6 September), a day to remember the India-Pakistan war of 1965. The ISPR had used a video clip of the then military dictator General Ayub Khan where he said something to the effect of “…the Indians do not know who they have challenged to war…” The promotional video then went on to imply how Pakistan thwarted this aggression and surprise attack from India.

While watching it, I realised how this was absolutely misleading because neither did India start this war nor did Pakistan win it. I know this because I had read a book called The Myth of 1965 Victory which was written by a military general. The high-ranking official was tasked internally by the military to find out the failures of this 1965 war with India. In the book, the general finds out how Pakistan initiated the 1965 conflict with Operation Gibraltar and how the objective to conquer Kashmir was not achieved, so the Pakistani military actually lost this war. This book is almost impossible to find in Pakistani bookstores today. When I found out about all this a few years ago, I also wrote about it for an international news magazine. I thought to tweet the article and in subsequent tweets reminded ISPR, the military's media wing how they were misleading the Pakistani public and propagating a history that was not true.

In the past, the Paki Govt commissioned a Report on the reasons behind the 1971 debacle . That report also has not seen the light of day !

A few minutes after my tweets, my phone rang. I did not know the caller, but I answered. On the line was Colonel Shafiq from the ISPR. He manages journalists — that is what someone told me his job was and continues to be. After introducing himself, he said, “Why are you so against us, Taha?” At first, I did not understand what he was talking about and I asked him to explain himself.

“You just tweeted against our campaign. That’s not fair,” he said. I replied, telling him that there was nothing false in what I had said and it were actually findings of an army general who had published a book about it.

“Oh! That was his perspective,” Shafiq replied and before I could respondm he invited me to the ISPR the next day.

“Why don’t you come and meet the new DG for ISPR General Asif Ghafoor tomorrow? He wants to meet you,” he said. I tried to get out of it by saying I am busy but the colonel insisted and eventually I said yes as I knew there was no way out of it.

Few days later, I was on my way to the Rawalpindi headquarters of the Pakistan Army, adjacent to which was the new sprawling building of the ISPR. I had not been here before and the last time I had come was when General Asim Bajwa, the last ISPR chief had invited me to lecture me about patriotism. I felt this conversation was going to be similar but I nevertheless embraced it, thinking that perhaps I could convince Ghafoor that I was doing nothing wrong by reporting facts, and they should stop glorifying past dictators or even do away with Defence Day altogether as there was nothing in celebrating a lost war.

A myth has been created . A public holiday is declared on that day . "Paki victory" is also celebrated in the text books of Pakistan Studies . The children grow up with this "victory" in their mind . And they get "confused" when they go oversees or see something else on the internet !

When I arrived at the entrance of the building, I was taken upstairs to Ghafoor's private office, where he was waiting for me. We shook hands and sat down on one corner on the sofas and before we began, the general asked a man dressed in a waiter’s outfit to bring us some refreshments.

As soon as I sat down, the general began a quiz on my understanding of military affairs. I did not understand where it was leading up to, but I was lectured on how I did not know the history and geography of my country well. There was no mention of the 1965 war yet. After dancing around the topic, it finally came up.

"Taha, we must stick to one message and that message should be of positivity, especially to the young ones that read what you write. You have a responsibility to unite us all, not divide us," Ghafoor said to me. I had been waiting for this so, I replied immediately.

“General, should I not tell them about an investigation carried out by the army about the war that rejects all myths of victory and attack by India?” I asked.To which I got the same reply that the colonel had previously said — “There are many perspectives and we need you to be on our side,” the general added.

Before I could say anything further, the tea arrived and the conversation was left hanging. When the tea had been served, the general got up and went towards his work table on the other side of the room. On his way there, he told me he was going to show me something confidential.

“You must not talk about this to anyone, because this is top secret!” he said to me. By that time, I was already quite fed up with his one-sided conversation, and I had no strength to argue back and so I decided to go with the flow. Moments later the general came back to me with a thick file, and placed it on the table. It had a label on it, with my name printed in bold letters.

“I will show you something from this that was shared with me,” he said without revealing who shared it, as he turned to one of the pages in the file and pointed to my printed name in the middle with a circle around it. From this circle, there were black lines drawn which connected me to different social media usernames in other circles around. It was basically my social media interaction cluster. Ghafoor pointed to a few of those clusters connected to mine and said, “This one here belongs to the Indian intelligence agencies. This one here is CIA. And your posts, comments, and tweets about Pakistan are being reshared by these accounts run by agencies to do propaganda against Pakistan.”

Could be the introduction of the Chini Internet And Censorship System !

tried to interject and tell the general that I had nothing to do with any foreign agencies and I was just a journalist doing my job but ignoring my response, he went on to threaten me: “Listen Taha, if you continue this way, then you will be identified with these foreign agencies, and you know that can bring you no good,” he warned.

This is the common modus operandi of Deep State . Warnings are given. If the warnings are not heeded, drastic action is taken !

This was not the first time I had been threatened by military officials (I plan to reveal the other incidents in a book I am currently writing). But usually the threats came from low ranking officers like brigadiers, colonels or even below, but this time it was a general – the top-most rank in the military. I was a little shaken, knowing how the military was capable of making me disappear. Only a few months earlier, I had been threatened with arrest for maligning the Pakistan Army, so I decided to assure the general of cooperation and even took the next few days easy. As 6 September, 2017 approached, I remained silent despite seeing 1965 war propaganda around me in the media, on the roads and parades organised for the day across the country. I saw how the nation was made to celebrate hate against India.

This is the glue that keeps Pakiland together. So, even if Kashmir is "solved", things are unlikely to change ! .

But it is only so much I can self-censor given my personality and eventually I was back to speaking openly about the military as I used to.

But perhaps that meeting in late August last year was Pakistan military’s last civil attempt at silencing me, as a few months after that meeting, I was kidnapped by armed men, in broad daylight when I was on my way to the Islamabad International Airport to catch a flight to London. I escaped the kidnapping by jumping out of the car in which I was being whisked away.

I suspect the army to be behind my failed abduction and since it did not finish the job, I decided to leave Pakistan for some time. I have relocated to Paris with my family. And from the safety of exile, I decided to write about that last warning that the Pakistan Army gave me, and explain how my country's military threatens local journalists like me to stop reporting facts, and how the army militarises Pakistanis on Defence Day with false narratives that preach hate against neighbouring India and paint it as a constant threat.

And as long as this perception of threat exists, the military will be able to justify its relevance and dominance when it comes to running Pakistan, where it has directly ruled for half of the country’s existence, and disrupted democracy for the other half. If Pakistanis want to progress, they must see beyond the propaganda being fed by their State and demand normalisation of relations between the two countries, and the first step towards that may be knowing the truth behind days like Defence Day.

1971 War is entirely a different story . The 2 nation theory was smashed . A new country was born. That day is not "celebrated" as a public holiday